LOD Bug

[marcomio 0]

Hello Everybody!

Seems that many of You have the same performance problem. In my case its quite the same:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+ Barton (real 2,2 GHz), 2 GHz DDR-SDRAM, ATI Radeon 9800 XT with 256MB.

Surely not the performance giant itself (I know!!, but also no reason for screwing down the resolution to 800 x 600 with lowest details everywhere and without anti-aliasing (which looks like sh.....).

Like many other, I can not afford a high end system which is capable to play against 100 chess-masters at the same time and make the weather forecast for the next year by the way.

Other simulations runs smoothly without such an immersive loss of performance! So I have deleted ArmA and wait for things to come. Ah, yes! Before I forget: Quite a lot of ArmA-players with absolute High End Systems also say, they have this problems!

[whisper 0]

well, in case it could help, I've a bit better card, and for a completely smooth game, I did it this way :

C2D E6400 @ 2.6GHz, X1800XL 256M RAM, 1G RAM (now 2G but I've been running with 1G for a long time), AC97 sound chipset

1280x1024, view distance 2300m (3500 easily with the beta patch)

terrain, objects : High, shading : Normal, Textures : Normal, postprocessing : low, Anti aliasing : low, shadow : off, aniso filtering : low.

Sound settings : hardware acceleration : off, EAX : on. Hardware acceleration impacts my FPS a lot.

Running the game with -maxmem=600 (performance and stability were poo before I found the correct maxmem setting)

And this is with a middle card. The game is very demanding. my only beef now is that bush texture with shading on Normal ain't that good, I wish I had no FPS loss with High setting, but unfortunately sometimes in MP it impacts too much

[Pierre From Belgium 0]

Well, either way it's a CRIME for these game companies to be releasing unfinished games with so much problems.

attention, I received a warning for this kind of comment!!

[fitzee 7]

If you havnt already, try setting AGP arperture to 256. Even tho nvperfhud showed I was only using 172 megs vid ram, I was still getting this texture bug. After setting arperture to 256 I havent had the bug since. I've even been able to raise vid settings considerably.

[baddo 0]

Hi

I've got a nice screenshot from Hunapu, Sara after a nuclear warhead attack:

In this picture I was testing a mission. There are a total of around 10 standard size infantry groups and 3 tanks in the mission. There are no scripts in the mission. Previously I had tested this mission during the same session as a regular rifleman, on foot. I then decided to try to be a gunner in the T-72 and previewed the mission, and quickly the view changed into like it is in the screenshot. I assume it had something to do with the fact that I changed into a gunner. I had previously no problems while testing the mission as the rifleman.

In order to be fair towards BIS, the computer I am using is below the minimum requirements so I can't say this is a bug. I know my computer is outdated and has trouble coping with Armed Assault.

ArmA settings and computer specs:

Armed Assault 1.05.5136

Resolution: 1024x768x32

Aspect ratio: 4:3 - Normal

Refresh rate: 75 MHz

Visibility: 803

Brightness: 1.0

Gamma correction: 1.0

Terrain detail: Very low

Objects detail: Normal

Texture detail: Low

Shading detail: Very low

Postprocess effects: Low

Anisotropic filtering: Disabled

Shadow detail: Disabled

Antialiasing: Disabled

Blood: Low

WinXP Home 32-bit

Athlon 1.4 GHz CPU

768 MB 133 MHz SDRAM

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128 MB VRAM on AGP 4x bus

NVIDIA Forceware version 93.71

3 x Samsung SP0802N IDE ATA hard disk drives, UltraDMA mode 5

DirectX 9.0c December 2006

I start ArmA in high priority (Windows XP setting) and minimize the number of other programs running at the same time. The hard disk drives have been defragmented and the pagefile is not on the same hard disk drive as Armed Assault or Windows XP.

As I already said, this computer is clearly too slow for ArmA. But most of the time I can play ArmA with no problems. I played recently the second mission of the campaign and had no performance problems and graphical errors were not noticeable most of the time. There were at some point low level-of-detail in some objects but it lasted only a short time and was bearable. I played the mission using the public beta patch 1.05.5143. When I bought the game in February and tried the campaign for the first time on this very same computer and ArmA had quite the same settings, there were serious problems during the introduction into the campaign. Most objects were on low level-of-detail (for example the female news reporter had no face) and at that time I just stopped and decided to wait for a better time to try it again. Now it seems the campaign runs okay when taking in notice how low-spec this computer is.

Best Regards,

Baddo.

[Talbot 0]

Well, either way it's a CRIME for these game companies to be releasing unfinished games with so much problems.

attention, I received a warning for this kind of comment!!

I've been having the same problem but what adds insult to injury was the fact that the game would crash randomly and give me some retarded error. However, for some reason, after adding -maxmem= 512 to the command line .exe short cut I played for 4 hours and had absolutely no crashes and no texture distortion. This was suggested to me by.... I forgot... someone clever.

This was with the original 1.5, not the beta. I can't figure out how to get -maxmem=512 working with that batch file.

I have probably jinxed it now and it will start crashing and giving me the texture bug again.

[maxqubit 1]

Just fyi:

I've seen the same prob (texture degradation or whatever you call it) in ELITE!! on Xbox but only on the (bigger) island of NOVOGA. It kicks in after a longer period of playing.

From memory i'd say i had the REBOOT the xbox to get rid of it. Just restarting the mission didn't solve it (as said, it is from memory). In those days i did suspect the 'increase viewdistance cheat' which is avaiable for Elite.

[Heatseeker 0]

Well, either way it's a CRIME for these game companies to be releasing unfinished games with so much problems.

<span style='color:blue'>I HAVE POSTED THIS A DOZEN TIMES NOW...</span>

I had this problem in the demo, full version 1.4 and 1.5.

I increased my AGP aperture to max in BIOS (64 to 256) and i never ever had this problem again!

Maybe you cant be bothered to use the search button or expect your PC to work just like a console...

edit: This thread is in the wrong forum section and the name doesnt even describe your problem, i bet you didnt even try searching for a solution in the troubleshooting section.

[deevius 0]

WELL HOW NICE THAT THAT WORKED FOR YOU HEATSEEKER

I have SEEN your posts about the AGP Aperture 3 times now and I keep telling you I have tried ***EVERYTHING*** - what part about everything dont you understand

my AGP Aperture is currently set at 256 now, and i just had a game and got the texture errors again so dont act like you know everything because truth is no-one seems to know what causes this except maybe BIS

Tell me I haven't searched? fool. I've searched every single related topic about this and NO-ONE has an answer to it, BIS has not made any comments about it... so wtf are you talking about!?

[deevius 0]

and why did i not post this in Troubleshooting?

because every other post about this problem has been practically ignored and no answers found

its about time someone FULLY bought some attention to this bug and how bad it is

[whisper 0]

I think, deevius, they are fully aware. They seldom communicate on bugs, though.

But usually they get things fixed, when they can.

And, if my guess is right, and it's all way more than 1 single problem, they won't have a fix easily, unfortunately

[Dwarden 1125]

deevius as You got ATI card may i ask You to install ATI tray tools (latest beta ttp://www.radeon.ru/downloads/att/b/attsetup.exe

)

then please do following:

right mouse button on ATT tray icon

choose Tools & Options > Onscreen Display ...

then

Enable OnScreen Display

then click FlashOSD

choose Show All Time

then

enable Free Video Memory

then enable Free Texture Memory

then enable System Memory Used by Process

then ok

also in Tweaks > Standard Tweaks

in section others made sure Geometry Instancing is enabled

play ArmA till You get visual glitches then write here values for all 3 memory infos just prior and after it appears ...

---

MOD: thread moved to "TROUBLESHOOTING" section

[deevius 0]

Okay Dwarden, i'll try this out

is it wise to use a beta version of ATI Tray? can I just use the version ive got installed now?

also im pretty sure I tried Geometry Instancing earlier on today and it made my graphics all blurry, but maybe it was one of the other settings that done that so i'll try it again

[deevius 0]

Just tried that out.

Started with a test in the Blood Sweat & Mission. It seems the Geometry Instancing tweak has helped it a *little bit*

was running smoothly for first 2 or 3 minutes, with the following results:

FVM: 25mb

FTM: 25mb

SMV: 243mb

then a few small texture errors started appearing, with results:

FVM: 33mb

FTM: 33mb

SMV: 255mb

then I joined a Multiplayer mission. A lot of texture bugs started appearing immediately as soon as I joined. Results:

FVM: 83mb

FTM: 83mb

SMV: 268mb

then it went to:

FVM: 61mb

FTM: 61mb

SVM: 293mb

im hoping this all means something to you

[keefehb 0]

I have this problem aswell

i thought it was because i have an 8800 under vista though.

i rerolled back to 1.04 and it worked for 5 mins, under 1.05 and the beta patch i get lego assault just like that pic.

my pc

Athlon 64 x2 5200

2 x XFX 8800 GTS

2gb ram

Windows vista ultimate 64bit (biggest mistake ever)

[snkman 351]

Man this game simply SUCKS!!!!!

Come back in 1 year and after patch 150.4.5 they maybee fix it.

C2D 6600E + 8800GTX = 15 fps

[sickboy 13]

Weird, my C2D E6600 + 8800GTX , All Very High except Texture Detail and Objects on High, AA disabled, 32-bit HDR: 1600x1200@100hz brings in ~25-50FPS. Viewdistance 3000.

while with the 1.05+  it remains nearly always around 50FPS, Viewdistance 6000.

In Nvidia ArmA Profile: Tripple Buffering Enabled

I must admit that I haven't tried the higher viewdistance with a standard clocked E6600. Mine is clocked at 3.4ghz

Try uninstalling all ur graphics and chipset drivers and installing latest versions from www.guru3d.com (older 8800GTX drivers were a lot slower than the latest 101.02)

[Pierre From Belgium 0]

and why did i not post this in Troubleshooting?

because every other post about this problem has been practically ignored and no answers found

its about time someone FULLY bought some attention to this bug and how bad it is

...

[snkman 351]

Weird, my C2D E6600 + 8800GTX , All Very High except Texture Detail and Objects on High: 22" CRT 1600x1200@100hz brings in ~25-50FPS. Viewdistance 3000.

while with the 1.05+ it remains nearly always around 50FPS, Viewdistance 6000.

I must admit that I haven't tried the higher viewdistance with a standard clocked E6600. Mine is clocked at 3.4ghz

Try uninstalling all ur graphics and chipset drivers and installing latest versions from www.guru3d.com (older 8800GTX drivers were a lot slower than the latest 101.02)

Well slowly i'm getting tiered to try to fix any problems by myself by installing new drivers, Chipset, overclocking and so on...

The point is EVERY other game ( Settings Ultra High ) is running on max frames.

So far i wasted about 3 month for analysing the Game and now slowly the point is reached where i lose my patience

B.t.w.: Sickboy where do you get 25-50FPS on a empty map?

Well i made a Mission with about 500 Units and first time i thought it's becouse of the many Soldiers but now i get thouse strange FPS even on Rahmadi with 40 Units...

[jordan_dj21 0]

you have to laugh everyone, its pretty damn funny really! Instead of playing the sodin game , everyone has to scowl the net for solutions on how to 'FIX A BUG' that basically RUINS the enjoyment of playing Arma. I have tried every solution on this topic yet nothing has worked. I still get the texture loading issue. Teamswitching is the worst, especially in towns when basically I lose the textures of everything for 2-3 seconds. I really spoils that immersive feeling the game provides. Please BIS, sort it out, and quick!

[jordan_dj21 0]

I found this in the changelog for Beta version of 1.06

5138 - Fixed: Measures implemented to avoid textures being placed in AGP,

which often caused degraded performance after prolonged playing.

Deevius, have you noticed any difference?

Thought not!

[sickboy 13]

you have to laugh everyone, its pretty damn funny really! Instead of playing the sodin game , everyone has to scowl the net for solutions on how to 'FIX A BUG' that basically RUINS the enjoyment of playing Arma. I have tried every solution on this topic yet nothing has worked. I still get the texture loading issue. Teamswitching is the worst, especially in towns when basically I lose the textures of everything for 2-3 seconds. I really spoils that immersive feeling the game provides. Please BIS, sort it out, and quick!

 

Well, I laugh at people that think that if a game with 200meters viewdistance (ergo, nearly all games) can be played on ultra high.... that then a game with 1200m viewdistance and more can also be played on ultra high....

Besides, the whole idea of comparing 1 game to another 1 (especially in the case that ArmA has 100's of units moving in many cases aswell as a streaming engine and blaaa blaaa blaaa blaa).... makes it even more funny...

ArmA puts strain on many of your components, strain thats probably not put on ur system in many many other games....

I agree that there are bugs, and it seems many are haunted by it sure.    But what keeps giving me trust in the software is simply that it runs great on my own PC, it does on my current and it does on the one before this one. You can say what you want, but if I can get it to work properly on 2 pc's with AMD A64 and Intel C2D, different graphics cards etc. etc. and I can run it nice and flawless! then why can't you?

(yep, a bug in the game that especially manifests on your machines and not on mine...   so whats different in the machines,  the chipsets, other hardware, the configuration... there is much different... but so were my 2 machines ).

Again don't get me wrong, there's many bugs, some are worse than others. I am sure they can optimize a shitload on the Engine side aswell... Still I can not understand why you all are complaining with E6600 + 8800GTX while Im having a great time. (I had many of the problems that ppl describe, while running Vista64 though!

SNKMan, 500 units in 1 area which you can overview is too much I think.

I'm playing Coops about 20 players and 100's of units in many missions. It's all fine.  If I test offline with 250 units generated with my new AI manager, its fine too.

Before 1.05+ I had the issues with lower fps around bushes and in cities, after 1.05+ beta patch its fine

BTW... Just as a test... try running ur game in WINDOW mode and let us know how it goes... the parameters should be:

-x=1024 -y=768 -window

exchange 1024 and 768 with your wanted resolution.

I know you wouldnt want to play in Windowed mode all the time but see if it makes any difference, in Vista it stopped the Cannot create memory surface errors, for me.

[Pierre From Belgium 0]

The point is EVERY other game ( Settings Ultra High ) is running on max frames.

I think it's clear...? No?!!!

For every other games (except FSX) we are running on max frames !!!  So please stop talking about installing new drivers, Chipset, overclocking and so on...

The problem is with aa!!!!!!!!!! That's allllllll !!!!!

I'm gone....

[Maddmatt 1]

If you still have problems running on an 8800GTX then something is wrong with your setup .

[zinc 0]

You have to laugh everyone, its pretty damn funny really! Instead of playing the sodin game , everyone has to scowl the net for solutions on how to 'FIX A BUG' that basically RUINS the enjoyment of playing Arma.

I completely agree, if it's not graphical issues it's sound related problems. I have no patience left whatsoever with this 'archaic' game engine. So for now, I'll leave the veteran OFP elitists and modders on this forum to continue 'wowing' newbies over this frankly poor excuse for a PC game like it's the best thing since sliced bread.

BIS should take note, if you want success in the gaming industry, you should create something 'usable' for the masses, not the minority. And if you intend 'flogging a dead horse' again in the future, at least have the decency to put it on the box so the consumer can make an educated choice before purchasing the 'product', and I use that term very loosly.

After this experience, I don't think I'll be purchasing a BIS product ever again.

Adios.